


Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

by bygoshbygolly



Category: ALL OUT!! - Amase Shiori (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Future Fic, M/M, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 17:04:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12686403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bygoshbygolly/pseuds/bygoshbygolly
Summary: Raita has to go to a conference, but he leaves Eiichi a few things to keep him company.Written for SASO '17





	Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

**Author's Note:**

> still working my way through posting my saso fills
> 
> Written for the prompt: "Central Saint Martins graduate creates misbehaving robots designed purely to annoy you" - [this Dezeen article](https://www.dezeen.com/2017/06/22/central-saint-martins-graduate-misbehaving-robots-technology-design/)

“I can’t believe I’m going to be gone for a whole week!” Raita whined, flinging his arms around Eiichi’s neck and rubbing his cheek against the top of his head. Eiicchi, who had endured variations of this speech for the past three days, ignored him and continued working on the accounts for the barbecue place down the road.

“A week!” Raita repeated. “Stuck with a bunch of nerds and fussy teachers, away from my Eiicchi and our nice warm apartment.” He went on, like their week’s separation was going to be the death of him, and they both didn’t know that he was going to have a great time at the robotics conference.

It was overdramatic, even for Raita, and Eiichi felt his patience fraying. He tensed and took a deep breath. _Focus on the accounts_ , he thought. _Focus on the accounts and on not throwing Raita out the window._

“Are you going to miss me, Eiichi?” Raita murmured into his neck. Eiichi sighed.

“I can’t miss you if you don’t leave,” he pointed out. Raita cackled and kissed his cheek.

“All right, all right; I’m going. There’s a surprise for you in our bed, by the way!”

Eiichi finally put down his pencil and turned to look at Raita.

“What sort of surprise?” he asked, keeping his voice as even as possible. Raita laughed again.

“I can’t tell you! Then it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

“I swear, if it’s anything like the last ‘surprise’ you left for me before a conference, I’m changing the locks and burning your shit.” Eiichi threatened, remembering the obscene body pillow and cheerful accompanying note. Raita grinned.

“No, no, it’s way better than that,” he said, and hefted his travel bag onto his shoulder. “I’m really going now, by the way.” He waited expectantly. Eiichi watched him. Raita opened the door. “I’m going now. I’m leaving.” Eiichi fought back a smile as Raita paused again. “OK, Eiichi, I’m leaving now and you won’t see me for a whole week, ok?”

Eiichi rolled his eyes as he stood. He walked over to the door, leaning in to kiss Raita good-bye. He was going to miss the brat, after all.

 

Eiichi wasn’t sure what to expect that night, but a padded robot the size of a rabbit and shaped like a bullet wasn’t it. It had a note taped to it, written in Raita’s messy handwriting, which read “Don’t kick me out >:(“ He rolled his eyes and got under the covers, letting the robot stay next to him. He wasn’t sure what the little machine was going to do, but he’d give it a chance. If it pissed him off, he’d just get rid of it.

It was always quiet when Raita was gone, and it took him longer than usual to fall asleep.

 

He was awakened in the middle of the night by a sharp poke to his butt.

“Cut it out,” Eiichi mumbled, turning over so he could pin Raita in place. Raita couldn’t even sleep still, and his knees and elbows and feet frequently wound up jabbing Eiichi awake.

It was only when his arm encountered the cool, empty sheets on the other side of the bed that Eiichi remembered Raita was away. Blearily, Eiichi looked around for what poked him, and spotted the little robot just as it prodded him in the stomach. He grunted and picked the robot up to place on the floor with a mumbled curse.

This time, sleep came much faster.

 

“Hey! Eiichi!” Raita greeted when Eiichi called him the next morning. “How are you? Did you like my surprise?”

“Your shitty robot woke me in the middle of the night by poking me in the ass,” Eiichi grumbled. Raita laughed.

“Yeah, it was supposed to. I know you miss me, so I made you a robot that acts like me so you don’t get lonely.” He sounded so proud of making a robot specifically designed to antagonize Eiichi. Eiichi smiled, knowing Raita couldn’t see him.

“Idiot. The best part of you being gone is that I don’t have to deal with your restless sleeping.”

“Well, you don’t have to keep it the rest of the week,” Raita replied. “Especially when I left a couple of other surprises for you.”

Eiichi groaned, and Raita cackled.

“Ah, I have to go!” he said, and made an obnoxious smooching noise into the phone.

“Yeah. Love you too,” Eiichi replied.

 

Raita’s “other surprises” turned out to be a robot that randomly turned off the kitchen radio and one that crawled up the back of their couch to poke him intermittently. It wasn't often enough to piss him off-- as much as Raita delighted in riling him up, he always knew to stop before it went too far, and somehow he'd programmed the little machines to know as well-- but enough that they were a constant presence, something he couldn't ignore. It was, in a way, like having Raita there, but without the things that Eiichi actually liked about him.

He didn't stop them, though.

 

“What did you think of my surprises?” Raita asked the next morning. He sounded tired-- there had probably been another midnight session of robot fighting.

“They're even more obnoxious than you are,” replied Eiichi. He looked over at the first robot, sitting on Raita's side of the bed. “Come home soon.”


End file.
